2018 Summer Kansas Child

help them not just be ready for school,
but for life. It looks like fun, and it is.
It’s also definitely learning – shapes,
colors, cutting, letter recognition,
number recognition, reading readiness,
following directions, paying attention and
developing social skills.”
Child care providers are uniquely
positioned to provide the kinds of
experiences that wire the young brain
to build the necessary skills for lasting
success. Children have opportunities
to learn individually, from each other
and in small groups. They do this by
experimenting, observing and participating
with other children and adults.
“If child care is high quality it
is indistinguishable from early
education,” says Anne Maack,
Coordinator of Early Childhood
Initiatives at the Wichita State University
Community Engagement Institute.
Reaping benefits for children
and their parents
A growing body of research backs up the
benefits. Children who have high-quality
child care gain major intellectual and
development advantages that last into high
school, according to a long-running U.S.
National Institutes of Health study. The
study showed that children scored higher
on measures of academic and cognitive
achievement years later as teenagers
and were less likely to act out. Quality
for child care was measured by the time
the provider spent interacting with the
children as well as warmth, support and
cognitive stimulation.
School readiness isn’t about
worksheets, being drilled on
multiplication tables or reading by age
4. Instead, child care prepares students by
surrounding them with developmentally
appropriate books and toys as well
as access to caregivers equipped to
individualize activities – all so a child can
play and explore at their own pace.
“Never underestimate what a young
child can learn,” Mentzer said. “We learn
science by chasing butterflies, math by
counting blocks and language arts by
making stories come to life through
dress-up.”
Parents develop their own version of
school readiness skills through child
care. A study at the University of Texas at
Austin found that parents who enrolled
their children in child care were more
involved in school life as their kids got
older. In addition to the parents’ increased
involvement in their child’s academic life,
kids found it easier to adjust to formal
schooling after going to child care.
Building partnerships with K-12
Pre-K is the fastest growing sector in
public education. But despite opportunities
to better align K-12 and early care, these
systems have sometimes been reluctant to
work as partners. Early education requires
school administrators to step outside
traditional K-12 models of teaching.
Simply pushing down highly structured
grade school practices on preschoolers
doesn’t work.
A former superintendent said that
initially he didn’t want to collaborate with
private child care providers because he
“thought that the district could do a better
job.” With experience, however, he found,
“Public schools are in no better position
to run a comprehensive pre-K program
than private providers…Mixed delivery is
the way to go.”
Many state pre-K initiatives offer only
part-day programs. Full-day services
are critical to meet the diverse needs of
young children and their working parents,
particularly for low-income or solesupport
parents and those who can’t take
off from work to provide transportation
between programs.
“Child care quality without availability
is not the complete package,” Maack said.
“Barriers to child care for working parents
are so real.”
Collaborative pre-K programs are not
easy to construct, and there’s no onesize-fits-all
strategy. A key component,
however, is partnering with child care
providers who offer longer hours with
before and after school care. This can
enable programs to expand from half day
to full day and from school year to full
year. Another promising solution is to
allow parents to choose between public
or private providers with payments by the
state made directly to providers.
No matter what the arrangement,
experts warn against causing harm to
the child care industry. When parents
pull 4-year-olds out of private child
care for government-funded pre-K,
it unbalances the financial
sustainability equation for
private providers. Caring
for an infant costs roughly
Continued on page 6
The following
is a list of
skills typical
for children
entering
kindergarten:
•§
Plays short games from
beginning to end.
•§
Can put on his/her own coat.
•§
Knows basic safety rules.
•§
Pays attention to directions.
•§
Recognizes numbers, colors
and most letters.
•§
Likes to read, sing, tell stories
and take turns in conversation.
www.ks.childcareaware.org Kansas Child 5